Council Expenditures - March 2009

Council ExpendituresReleased March 2009Download the Full Report hereDownload highlights here

The City Council requested a review of 2006-2008 expenditures for each Council member and the President’s office for compliance with the City Charter and Code in an October 5, 2008, letter to the Integrity Steering Committee.

We found:

Two council members made payments from their expense accounts that violated the city’s Code of Ordinances

Three council members made cumulative annual payments to individual vendors that exceeded $20,000 in fiscal years 2007 and 2008

We were unable to determine whether almost one-third of the expenditures we reviewed in detail from fiscal years 2006 through 2008 complied with code provisions due to ambiguity in the code and lack of detail in required support

The city’s accounting and reimbursement practices for Council member expense accounts lack transparency, which increases risk of error, wrongdoing, or appearance of wrongdoing